Here's my best small space tip: Keep it clean. Yes, that works well everywhere, but is especially important in a smaller space where your can, for example, see the kitchen from the living room and where, for another example, a pair of sneakers left on the floor become more of a health hazard and eyesore than a minor annoyance.

That, and keeping the noise to a reasonable level, seem to make all the difference.

Cheers.

Split the cost of a cleaning service to come at least once every 2 weeks. This is the singular way to prevent fighting and harboring resentment about who is doing how much of the cleaning. With one caveat - you can also avoid the problem if one roommate takes sole responsibility for the cleaning of all common areas in exchange for paying a lower share of the rent (or having the larger bedroom or something).

My rule numero uno is each person should have a bill in their name so each person is responsible for taking care of it - and pay that person with a CHECK! We would always give cash to the person who was in charge of our gas bill (the cheapest bill, mind you) and one day we came home to find a red note taped to the door from the gas company threatening shut off. We were forced to write $7 checks from then on, and made sure to make them out to the gas company directly. And no, she was not a stranger, we grew up together practically... but she had a shopping problem.. and you just never really know someone!

I also agree with clutter thing, I don't care what you do in your room (short of just being nasty dirty) but common areas are off limits for your crap. My roomie would literally leave a trail of stuff to her room as she came in and began to get undressed. When I tripped over her heels that were directly in front of the door and rolled my ankle I was DONE!

Also, just making rules before move in day. Like we had a dishwasher but each of us rarely used many dishes, but one person wanted to be super lazy and run the dishwasher for her cereal bowl and spoon. Things like that should be discussed to avoid some of the unnecessary arguments.

Also, I think everyone discussing how they tend to function is important. Myself and one other roommate were just the types to go in our rooms and shut our doors. Our other roomie was not happy with this and took it personal, as she was the type who wanted to gather in the kitchen and living room every evening and kept her room door open constantly, even when blasting music. Had we discussed all that before hand I have a feeling almost all of the issues we had would have been non-existent.

Phew. Now I remember why I live alone!

Everyone probably has a roomie story that can end with,
"...and that's when the fight started."

make sure that your potential roomie who loves to bake isn't also conveniently allergic to dish soap...
just fyi :)

"With one caveat - you can also avoid the problem if one roommate takes sole responsibility for the cleaning of all common areas in exchange for paying a lower share of the rent (or having the larger bedroom or something)"

This too though can end with fights. I do way more cleaning than my roommate. When we moved recently I pointed out it wasn't fair that we were basically moving to a new place so he could get cheaper rent and a better commute while I was going to be paying way more in rent while I also do most of the cleaning (he has never vacuumed a floor or cleaned a toilet).

He now tries to use that small rent difference to justify every jackass thing he does. "well I pay more in rent and I don't need a roommate so I don't feel I should have to do that."

The best part? The rent difference is 40 dollars, and he also uses it to justify devouring way more space than me. He was a nice guy when I had the job and was the one responsible for everything, but now that he is steadily working a well payed gig he is a complete dick half the time because he knows I have to have a roommate right now and he doesn't.

My roommate before him was also allergic to cleaning, and after coming home one weekend to find every dish and utensil in the kitchen dirty and jam on the floor and ceiling I flipped my shit on him. I had left the place spotless. I threw him out a couple months later. I never got the deposit back after what he did to the carpets.

After numerous roommate issues in our 3BR apartment, my roommate and I realized that the major points of disagreement with each of the residents of the 3rd room were always the same: cleanliness. The two of us are not perfect (my room is frequently a disaster) but when the common areas are taken over by someone else's messes you start to feel excluded from your space.

In the end, we opted not to get a third roommate again once the last moved out and instead have a lovely guest room/exercise room that never leaves its stuff all over the kitchen and living room.

My situation has worked out surprisingly well. I took on a roommate in a 2-bedroom apartment I'd already lived in on my own for years. I think respect is the most important thing - respecting one another's private space, and respecting the common space that you share. We don't have rules around chores - they just get done by one of us. Sometimes she does my dishes, sometimes I vacuum her room. It works out pretty equally, and the apartment is always tidy. We take turns buying supplies like TP and dish soap, I pay the utility bill b/c it's my stuff dominating the apartment, and we each have our own phones. It was a little hard for me to learn to accomodate someone else (and their stuff!), but even so, after a few months, even the furniture got completely re-arranged to accomodate our new ways of living - and I like it better this way! Plus we have a worm compost and a recycle centre now. The advantage of a roommate is that he or she can teach you new ways to live. :)

I have had more lousy roommates than good ones in my life. I think avoiding them is the key to happy living, but if you can't, absolutely everything needs to be up front before you move in together and EVERYTHING needs to be clearly agreed on. Preferably in writing, and with consequences. (No, I never managed that in Real Life.)

My current situation is a "domestic partnership" with my ex-husband. So I guess it counts as "roommates". After 30 years mostly together, with a few years off in the middle, we know each other and what to expect from each other and we have very similar ideas of what it should be like in our home.

I clean and do laundry, he drives us to restaurants, we each pay our own way, we share pet maintenance responsibilities, I contribute an agreed on amount towards the mortgage and various bills (less than my "half" because he earns almost 4 times my salary)... and we are pretty content. I am the primary decorator, but it's his home, too, so I never make changes without consulting with him first. Our taste is similar, so that's not often a problem.

So finding the right roommate and having realistic expectations, is another solution.

cleaning is one issue; decorating is a whole different mess...

Amen, Steph2. Sometimes everything can be hunky dory on every other front - cleaning, bills, etc. - but you are still living with someone who insists on hanging their GIANT Michael Jackson flag in the living room, and gets upset when you don't want to hang paintings a few inches from the ceiling. Sigh. There's no accounting for taste.

re: kirstenruby,

Im hesitant to move in with my significant other due to their tendancy to hang artwork wayyy to high on the wall. I use the term "artwork" loosely as it includes a framed jigsaw puzzle.

Also had the problem with moving in with a frien who was then upset that I spent too much time in my room and not with her in the living room.
then she caused a house fire.
then i moved in with a pack-rat/hoarder.. who had all the bills in his named but never mailed the payments in.

its not you, its me.
I, myself, hate living with other people.

I wish that when I was interviewing potential roommates I could have asked them to take a snapshot of their bedroom. Instead I asked people about their cleanliness standards and of course everyone insists that they're tidy, clean people. It would also have been illuminating about their personal style. I have one roommate who's bedroom looks like an episode of Hoarders and she has an overwhelming love for the color pink. Our color palettes don't mesh and I am incredibly resentful of filthy common spaces. If I had seen what her room looked like beforehand, I could have avoided these problems.

Somehow I think that asking strangers to bring a camera phone picture of their bedrooms to an interview would have made me look like a crazy person. I guess there isn't a way to discover if people are ACTUALLY clean other than hoping they don't lie.